I appreciate the Herald updating the Grand Forks community about UND's arrangement with Pearson Online Learning Services . As a leader of this part of UND's Strategic Plan, it is important to me for the community to hear about changes happening at UND as we, with President Mark Kennedy's leadership, work to ensure that UND continues to be the chief opportunity engine for North Dakota and our students.
Although the article provided an accurate description of UND's online initiative, the headline might have been misleading. It referred to Pearson as an online education provider, which is not part of our arrangement with them. Providing education online is what we at UND do, and we do it well. Our arrangement with Pearson calls for them to only provide services that will help increase UND's enrollments and student retention and graduation rates.
Perhaps, it isn't a distinction that matters to many, but it is important to my fellow professors for everyone to recognize that we at UND, not an outside company, control the academic content and integrity of our programs.
Despite my need to clarify this point, I thank and commend the Herald for sharing this aspect of how UND is changing to better meet the needs of our current and future students.
Jeffrey Holm
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Grand Forks
